Military veteran pushed out of job after 36 years of service

When was the last time you were shocked or surprised by an awful event? There isn't a day that goes by without something heinous making the news. People have become numb. We've cultivated a society that thrives on negativity and leans toward believing the absolute worst about everyone and everything. In spite of our obvious conditioning, every once in a while something still shakes us to the core.

While there is never a day when the Bernie Madoffs of the world aren't smudging the front page of our paper, eventually reality sets in. It s no longer their town or someone else's job or retirement that is lost, but it's ours. I hope and pray that we haven't forgotten the nearly 70,000 workers and retirees that Delphi wrote off; most were labeled as nothing more than pension liabilities. Yet, I find myself wearied and even shocked at the devastation in my own family. No, my dad isn't an autoworker or even a salaried employee from one of our local plants, but I'm hoping that you will find his story just as important.

For as long as I can remember there was something distinctly different about his attire. He was a battle-ready soldier, camouflaged from head-to-toe. He was her husband, a mother's son, your neighbor and my hero. He recently served in Kuwait, Dubai, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia as a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force. It was on his most recent tour that he received an email detailing his forced retirement at the age of 54. Imagine: Here is a man who dedicated his life to the preservation of our freedom and he gets his walking papers while serving on foreign soil, the very same papers insuring the loss of 60 percent of his pension.

So, with 36 years of military experience, a bachelor's degree from Purdue, and a master's degree in business, he finds himself unemployed, thrown away and forgotten; scraping by with odd substitute teaching jobs and even hanging drywall. Welcome home, Colonel. Thanks for your service!

William Cory Stanley

Kokomo

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Military veteran pushed out of job after 36 years of service

When was the last time you were shocked or surprised by an awful event? There isn't a day that goes by without something heinous making the news. People have become numb.